Jack Eyers: 'My dream is to be seen as a good model, not a sob story’

The hunky star of Scope’s laundrette advert tells Theo Merz he wants disabled
people to be part of the norm

Jack Eyers flicks through the portfolio he has built up over two years as a model, ranging from sportswear shots to images of him wearing historical dress. As he does, he talks about the sort of problems that anyone trying to break into the business might relate to: the difficulties of getting an agent, of being noticed by big brands, of building up a profile.

The one area in which Eyers differs from other upcoming models, however, is that he is an amputee. Having been born with the rare condition Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency, which prevented his right leg from growing properly, he opted to have the limb amputated when he was 16. Since then, he has never tried to hide his prosthetic leg, displaying it proudly in his portfolio pictures, and preferring to wear shorts rather than trousers.

“I know it looks pretty cool,” says Eyers, who lives in Bournemouth and also works as a personal trainer. “I actually feel more self-conscious when I’m wearing trousers: I’d much rather people see what it’s like, instead of spending time wondering what’s underneath, because I walk differently.”

The prosthetic limb has not done his career much harm so far. Since appearing in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics, the handsome 25-year-old has featured in shoots for the online fashion retailer Boohoo, as well as advertisements for Barclays and Tango. He is currently the face of the disability charity Scope: their summer advertising campaign, revealed last week, features Eyers walking into one of their shops, stripping down to his pants and donating the clothes he was wearing. It has been the charity’s most successful donation drive ever and is earning Eyers a legion of fans.

And he is part a wider move, from brands around the world, towards using models with physical disabilities in their advertising campaigns. The American department store Nordstrom last month featured a model in a wheelchair in one of their catalogues, while the chain JC Penney used mannequins with prosthetic limbs in the windows of its Manhattan shop.

Similarly, a video showing how five fashion houses in Zurich had replaced their mannequins with disabled shop models went viral at the end of last year, while a Russian fashion house sent its outfits down the catwalk on a range of disabled models at an event in March.

Eyers – who grew up in Wells, Somerset – is pleased that acceptance of disabled models is growing, but believes there is still some way to go before they are part of the norm.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with designers and clothing brands to ask why they’re not using us,” he says. “Their excuse is that the attention is going to be on our disabilities rather than their clothes, which is what they are trying to sell. I think that’s really bad, because if that image gets shared all over social media then that’s surely good for their brand. The real reason is that people are scared; they don’t want to offend anybody.”

But he does not take these sort of rejections personally. If anything, Eyers believes his status as an amputee has helped him to overcome setbacks. “Luckily, I’ve been in pain all my life, so I have a very high pain threshold. I feel like I can push a lot harder than other people at the gym. You have to keep on pushing your boundaries.”

Before his amputation, Eyers underwent two major operations to rebuild his hip, which took him out of school for long periods and left him in “incredible” discomfort, meaning he often found it difficult to concentrate in lessons.

As a sporty child, he was frustrated by his disability – as well as the taunts of some of his classmates – and fell in with a bad crowd at school, before realising he could channel his frustration into weightlifting, boxing and, later, his career.

“If I’d seen more disabled models when I was growing up, maybe I would have felt more confident about myself,” admits Eyers, who hopes he can now be as much role model as a fashion model.

“I want to open a studio to offer personal training for amputees. My girlfriend is an assistant psychologist, working with people with mental illness, so we’re both very passionate about helping people. I’m the body; she’s the mind.”

And his future in the world of fashion? “I think some brands see us as ticking a box,” he says. “Which is all right to start with, because it means that we’re making headway. My dream, though, is to be featured not as some one-off sob story, but because people see me as a good model.”